All the Dirt on Gardening

I'll be cleaning out my worm bins soon. If you are in the Muskogee area and have some interest in  starting a worm compost bin, let me know and I'll give you some starter worms. Here's my 2008 article about one of my compost worm projects. http://allthedirtongardening.blogspot.com/2008/02/do-you-know-about-vermicomposting-or.html Here's the Texas extension service info on compost worms http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/syllabi/302/new/holistic/vermicomposting.html Here are some interesting sites about composting with red worms: Red Worm Composting Earth Worm Digest Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Urban Agriculture Allied Waste Company has good basic how to info on their site and they aren't selling anything either. < ; - ) Here are their basic instructions on Start a Worm Bin - Find or build a shallow container (about l6-l8 inches deep), wooden boxes, plastic storage containers work well. Drill drainage holes. - Fill your worm bin with...

The tiny leek starts went into their little trench this morning. As they grow we will fill the trench to make the white part of each one longer so there is more to roast. The soaker hose to the left will be run down the center. Leeks cannot ever dry out. To give the plants a great head start, one of the worm compost bins was harvested. I spread out sheets of newspaper in the shade and dumped the bin upside down. Then I tore enough newspaper to fill the bin and wet it down, turned it and let it drip out the bottom holes Then, I broke up the bin of castings to encourage the worms to go to the bottom of the pile. After a half hour, I could sort through the castings, move the worms to their refurbished digs and use the remaining black gold to fertilize the leeks, the Louisiana Sweet Potato Squash and some tomato plants, too. The leek starts are plants we started from seed in the shed last January.

ROBIN IN THE APPLE TREE A rainy cold day like today is perfect for spending several hours in the shed. I had the camera out there to take a few photos. When I looked up from planting, a robin was in the apple tree outside the window. THE POTTING SHED This photo of the potting shed was taken last week but it gives you an idea what we are up to - we are up to our eyeballs in baby plants that we hope will succeed! One of the re-potting pleasures was taking Bishop's Lace seedlings out of their starter pots and moving them to 1-inch cell trays. The seeds (and the photo shown here) were from Renee's Garden Seeds. BISHOP'S LACE I used seed starting mix and sprinkled the seeds on 4-inch pots. Out of that one pack of seeds, I transplanted 125 seedlings today. Every seed must have germinated. For the most part that is the experience I have had with Renee's seeds: terrific germination. Rest assured, I can kill the plants after they come up so I still have a mediocre live plant ...